Khalaf Al Habtoor has made a fortune in Dubai's construction boom. But are his politics ready for export?

He has accused the U.S. government of secretly funding the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as a pretext for invading Iraq. He says that Washington, aiming to control the Middle East's resources, has long stirred dissent by encouraging Israel to sign peace treaties with some Arab nations. Western democracy, he claims, is "phony" and inspires "hatred."

The rantings of a radical cleric in Iraq? A leader of Hamas? No, these are the views of Khalaf Al Habtoor, 57, one of the richest businessmen from the United Arab Emirates. Through hard work, good timing and the right royal connections, he has built an estimated $2.5 billion fortune riding the growth and excesses of Dubai from fledgling port city to glamorous commercial playground. Al Habtoor Group has helped build such familiar landmarks as the saillike Burj Al Arab and Jumeirah Beach hotels. It owns and operates four exclusive Dubai hotels and sells luxury cars. Habtoor's empire has tentacles as far off as the U.K., where in 1999 he bought the historic Monkey Island Hotel on a private plot in the middle of the Thames River. Last year the holding company netted an estimated $220 million on $1.4 billion, thanks to Dubai's zero taxes and cheap supply of labor.

But the ambitions of this billionaire reach beyond mere dirhams and dollars. Habtoor is a self-appointed spokesman for what he calls the Arab perspective: "It's my duty to inform the West of our culture, our history." By which he means an appreciation for its contributions to literature, math and science--not just terrorism, Habtoor explains during a recent interview at a Ritz-Carlton penthouse overlooking New York City's Central Park. Dressed in a lavender Berlioni sweater and starched sky-blue slacks, he was looking forward to a day of shopping on Fifth Avenue.

He was a long way from home. The sixth of seven children, Habtoor was born in Dubai, the son of a modest pearl trader who was savvy enough to expose his ambitious young child to Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum at an evening majlis, an Arab-style town hall meeting wherein Dubai's royal ruler holds a weekly audience with his subjects. Later Habtoor befriended the sheikh's son, the Crown Prince Mohammed (who inherited Dubai's throne when his brother died in 2006). As a teenager Habtoor hung out at the palace on weekends; he went to the beach and raced camels in the desert with the prince.

That friendship proved invaluable. At age 15 Habtoor worked part-time at an Abu Dhabi construction firm, after high school becoming the firm's youngest manager. Emboldened, he struck out on his own, forming Habtoor Engineering Enterprises, which built a movie theater and several homes in Dubai. All the while he continued to ingratiate himself in Sheikh Rashid's inner circle by regularly attending the majlis to promote his latest accomplishments and his zeal for bigger projects. "I was ready to compete with the biggest contractors worldwide," he says.

Not quite so fast. When the sheikh's contract for the emirate's second hospital came up for tender in 1977, Habtoor submitted a bid and was very confident he could win. Several days later he was stunned when he heard a rumor that the job had gone to someone else. "I went straight to the majlis to ask His Highness what the hell was going on," he says, still fired up. Turns out the sheikh was playing a joke on him, and he won the contract.

The hospital deal changed Habtoor's career. He finished it in 30 months instead of 36, and the sheikh was so impressed that he awarded Habtoor contracts for three hospitals and a headquarters for the new department of health. Sheikh Rashid also presented his now-trusted protégé with a 20-acre plot of land in the deserted outskirts of Dubai to build one of the city's first four-star hotels. Today that hotel stands at the center of Dubai's busiest commercial strip, Sheikh Zayed Road. The work put Habtoor on track to land 34 government contracts to date. Along the way he picked up exclusive rights to distribute Mitsubishis and Bentleys, as well as Aston Martins and Bugattis.

Habtoor hasn't always shown the same benevolence to his own children. None of his three daughters works for him. Ahmed, 29, and Mohammed, 38, both educated in the U.S., are, respectively, chief of Habtoor Motors and head of Al Habtoor Group. But they've had to earn it. Starting out as a lowly porter, Mohammed was fired twice by his dad, both times for making decisions without consulting the boss. "He can't just be where I am," Habtoor explodes. "He has to work for it!" His oldest son, 41-year-old Rashid, joined his father in 1990 but left after three years to start his own business empire, Al Habtoor Trading Enterprises, which is similarly focused on construction and car sales but mostly in the former Soviet Union. Rashid claims to be worth at least $400 million. But his father, no doubt, still remembers the shame (and tabloid attention) Rashid reportedly brought to his family in 2003 after an estranged flame of Rashid's, a British flight attendant, tried to kidnap their out-of-wedlock son and bring him back to the U.K. from Dubai.

For such an accomplished entrepreneur, Habtoor carries a sizable grudge against the West, which he firmly believes wants to grind the Arab world into dust. No coincidence that he started publishing a highly opinionated, bimonthly magazine, Al-Shindagah, in 1993--the same year as the Oslo Accords, the beginning of a long-troubled peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Ever since, he has used the house organ (its circulation, he says, is 10,000) to promote his construction projects and his political views. Among them: that the U.S. installed Pervez Musharraf as "dictator" of Pakistan in order to spread American hegemony and the suggestion that Venezuela's president is the Arab world's best friend in the Western Hemisphere ("Hugo Chávez and the Axis of Good"). Hoping to change minds, Habtoor sends copies of Al-Shindagah to the leaders of the industrialized world, as well as to the presidents of prominent Western universities. Most probably "throw it in the dustbin," he concedes. "Maybe 1% they read it."

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